Chapter 1 #2
Of course, she could’ve misread the situation, as she wasn’t close enough to hear what he’d said to her daughter, but she wanted to think that he’d been reassuring and comforting.
With the door closed, the man had to push his way through the throng of bodies to get back to the front of the chopper. Before he made it to the seat at the controls, they were already moving. And not slowly either. The helicopter lifted, then banked to the right, hard.
Everyone around her screamed in fear, and Penny instinctively looked toward where she’d last seen Bowie.
To her surprise, her daughter was holding on to a rope that was strung along the side of the chopper—and she still had a huge smile on her face.
As if she were on a roller coaster instead of in the middle of a death-defying situation.
Of course, Bowie had never been on a roller coaster in her short life, but she’d listened to stories about them that Penny read to her.
And when she was around four, Penny had even constructed a kind of roller coaster out of a box, putting a fan in front of the box and shaking it, letting the little girl pretend she was riding one.
Penny’s attention turned to the men behind the controls. She was too far away to see more than sky out the front of the windshield, so she kept her gaze glued to the pilots. One in particular. The one whose hands she would swear she could still feel around her waist.
He was strong and competent, and she had to believe that he’d get them all back on the ground to safety in one piece.
He turned and yelled something back toward his passengers, and Penny read his lips more than she heard the words.
“Hold on!”
No one had time to heed his warning before the chopper was once more banking hard to the side, throwing everyone into one another violently. There were more screams, and some women were crying now.
She held on to the door with a white-knuckled grip as the chopper banked to the right and left. When it finally leveled off, most of the women and children were crying.
The rotor blades of the chopper were loud, and there was no point in trying to talk to anyone or asking if it was okay if she moved, so Penny took the chance to finally weave her way around everyone kneeling or sitting on the floor so she could get to Bowie.
The second she touched her daughter’s shoulder, Bowie lifted her head and smiled.
“You okay?” Penny asked, going to her knees in front of her child. There was no room to sit next to her against the side of the helicopter, but that was all right, Penny would prefer that Bowie hold on to the rope in case they had more turbulence.
Calling what she suspected was the pilots dodging missiles or people shooting at them “turbulence” felt like a joke. But it was better than admitting people who didn’t even know them wanted them all dead.
Bowie’s hearing was better than the average child’s, likely overcompensation for her lack of sight, so she was able to hear her mom’s question over the roar of the engine and rotor blades.
“I’m great!” she answered enthusiastically. “This is fun!”
Penny couldn’t help but smile. Her daughter was patting the arm of the crying woman next to her, offering comfort.
But the six-year-old looked decidedly unfazed herself.
Once again, pride swelled within Penny. The two of them had been through some pretty tough times together, and it was obvious her daughter had learned to go with the flow as much as Penny had.
Relieved her daughter didn’t comprehend the danger they were in, Penny sat back. She kept a hand on Bowie’s leg as her gaze was drawn once more to the man flying the helicopter. Well, one of them in particular.
All of the man’s attention was on the instruments in front of him and the terrain outside.
His lips were moving as he spoke to the man next to him, or maybe to someone else through the headset over his ears.
He oozed confidence and competency, and that alone made Penny feel safe.
He obviously knew what he was doing. Neither him nor the other pilot were panicking.
From what she could tell, they were working in tandem, getting them away from whatever was happening below, away from whoever was trying to hurt them.
She’d learned the hard way that the only thing that truly mattered in life was Bowie. Her husband had let her down time and again, and when he was killed, he’d left behind a mountain of debt…and an enemy who’d do whatever it took to get the money he felt was owed to him.
Financially, the last two years had been tough.
Extremely tough. Most of the money Penny made went toward paying off her husband’s debts.
Even though she’d left the city, the man John owed had found her, insisting she give him regular payments to settle the obligation.
She and Bowie lived just as many of the locals did… in extreme poverty.
But despite that, they were content, if not happy.
The threat of John’s wildly changing moods was gone.
Penny didn’t have to worry about whether or not he’d come home from work pissed off at the world, ready to yell at her or Bowie for the smallest things he’d decided they’d done wrong.
She no longer walked on eggshells, and the sound of laughter frequently rang out in their tiny one-room hut.
Finding themselves in the middle of an attempt at taking over the government was surreal.
And never in a million years did Penny think she’d be inside a helicopter.
Still…even though they were basically on the run for their lives, and people were probably shooting at them, she couldn’t hold back another smile at seeing the pleasure Bowie was getting out of the flight.
She had no idea how long they flew, but eventually the sound of the engines changed.
Penny assumed they were landing, but she had no clue where.
The instructions she’d received at the hotel were vague at best. She and Bowie were at the mercy of the US government now.
They had nowhere to go, no family to return to in the States, and no money to stay in a hotel.
They could only wait and figure out what came next.
She should’ve been stressed out beyond belief, and while she was a little apprehensive, Penny had lived through worse.
And the thought of getting out of Gabon, away from those who thought she should pay for her husband’s sins, was actually a huge relief.
Because the truth was, she had no way of leaving Gabon if it wasn’t for the US government intervening and evacuating them.
Penny didn’t like being at the mercy of others, but she’d been that way for much of her life, so this didn’t feel so different. She had faith she’d be all right. That she and Bowie would navigate whatever was in their future together, as they’d done everything else.
Holding on to Bowie’s leg, Penny jerked a little as the chopper landed.
Anticipation swam in her veins. What new opportunities awaited her?
Would Bowie get to go to a school for the first time in her life?
She hoped so. Because while Penny had done her best to homeschool her, she knew the older her daughter got, the harder that would become.
And Bowie was extremely social, more so than her mom.
She loved meeting new people, and most of those she met immediately loved her.
Bowie would have no problem making friends, and Penny had no fears about her being left behind academically.
Her daughter was smart. Probably too smart for her own good.
She wondered where the government might place them in the States.
It didn’t really matter, but Penny hoped it was somewhere safe.
That’s all she wanted for herself and her daughter…
to be safe. It had been so long since she’d known true safety, Penny didn’t even remember what it felt like.
To never have to look over her shoulder or cringe every time someone knocked on the door.
No longer wonder who might show up out of the blue, saying they were there to collect on John’s debts.
Realizing she was worrying about things she had no control over, Penny did her best to turn her thoughts to the here and now.
The rotor blades on the chopper slowed, allowing everyone to be able to talk once more.
And talk they did. The women began asking the pilots where they were, what was going to happen next, when they’d be able to go back to their homes in Libreville.
The man sitting beside the one who’d helped them into the helicopter climbed out of his pilot’s seat. The rotor blades had mostly stopped by then, and he held up a hand as he took off his headset.
“You’re all safe now. We’re on a US aircraft carrier off the coast. I don’t know what the plans are for you to return to the city, but I’m guessing it won’t be anytime soon. Once we get you out of this chopper, you’ll be brought to a room and someone will come in and explain what happens next.”
Everyone seemed to speak at once, complaining, crying, and generally expressing their fears and concerns about the future. Penny couldn’t blame them, but bitching about the situation wouldn’t help anyone.
“Mommy, we’re on a boat?” Bowie asked, the awe and excitement easy to hear in her voice.
“Yeah, honey. I guess we are.”
“That means there won’t be any dust.”
Penny chuckled. They both hated the red dust that seemed to be everywhere outside the city. The roads were made of the hard-packed red earth, as was the floor of their home, and it got into everything. “You’re right, sweetie.”
“Awesome!” Bowie breathed.